Sendai tragedy hits close to Dallas, its sister city By kena sosa The world will not soon forget the unbelievable 8.9 magnitude earthquake that rumbled off the coast of Sendai, Japan, Friday March 11, 2011, causing an enormous 33-foot tsunami to sweep over the land., drowning the prosperous 400-year-old city of one million within moments, leaving thousands stranded to date with no food, water or electricity. In Japan, the land of the rising sun, clocks
were just striking 2:46 pm in a rather normal day. Most in the United States didn’t hear the news until much later. To add the devestation, nuclear power plants became unstable due to the quake, leading to the meltdown of at least one, exposing people and the environment to radiation. To those in Sendai, and the rest of the Tohoku area it must seem apocalyptic. However, as commonplace, when disaster strikes SENDAI continues on page 4 >>
Bullying: the fight for our youth By Marium F. Mohiuddin With the rise of Islamophobia, fueled by recent controversies such as “Burn a Quran Day” and the Park 51 Center, getting more alarming, the rise of bullying against Muslim Americans is on a similar track with our youth the ones likely to suffer.
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‘Stones into Schools’ - making the impossible possible By kena sosa The sequel to the New York Times No. 1 B e s t - s e l l e r, “Three Cups of Tea,” is finally here. “Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Education in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” has been anticipated by supporters of Greg Mortenson as much as a groupie stalks her favorite band awaiting their new album. “Stones Into Schools” digs a well in the sand, describing how his gang of ran-
domly assembled misfits, or “Dirty Dozen,” as he likes to refer to them, serve as some of the most loyal to the mission of the Central Asia Institute (CAI) which is to create a peaceful future by giving hope to kids, one school at a time. Mortenson goes into the painful details of traumatic events that could have cost him his life, of the high of his successes and the friends he has met along the way including ex-Taliban, village leaders and foreign soldiers. No matter whose side his companions are on, Mortenson demonstrates that there really are no sides to be taken if we have the same goal in mind. Mortenson, who to many readers is STONES continues on page 5 >>
The National Education Association (NEA) recently told the story of debate team champion, Autena Torbati, whose teammate announced to the class he would have “liked Hitler better if had he killed all the Muslims, instead of Jews,” For many Muslim American youth bullying has only been verbal taunts and gestures; unfortunately, for other students, the bullying has escalated into physical abuse. In Katy, an 8th-grade Muslim student was bullied with ethnic and religious slurs, brutally beaten and thrown into a Dumpster. In Minnesota, classmates who shoved raw pork in their faces chased Muslim girls, and in Staten Island, Hashem Omeira, a Muslim teen was relentlessly beaten from middle to high school, became a recluse and stopped socializing and resigned from school. The Statistics Bullying is crisis, affecting students of every age, race and creed. What makes the bullying
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of Muslim students disturbing is that it centers on the prejudices and fears of adults, giving non-Muslim children the acknowledgement that it’s OK to discriminate. According to the U.S. Department’s Health and Human Services, bullying is most common among middle school children, where nearly half of students may be bully victims. About 20 percent of students experience physical bullying at some point in their lives, while almost a third experience some type of bullying. Studies also show that females may be the victims of bullying more often than males. The NEA article also reported that Muslim students had reported that a school administrator screamed at a 13-year old to remove her hijab until she broke down in tears. A guest speaker at another school handed out demonizing literature about Islam in a social sciences class. At such an impressionable age, students take their queues from adults, especially educators. When those adults join in on the bullying, it’s not only a bad example but a betrayal of trust to students it’s against. However, educators have found that when just one caring adult supports a student, it can make a world of difference, creating a positive ripple effect that goes beyond one BULLYING continues on page 5 >>
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